Saturday, October 6, 2012

The faulty maps apart, Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL)’s new
iPhone 5 has found favour with Consumer Reports, a reviewer group.

Consumer Reports was the organisation that had
severely criticised the defective antennas and dodgy reception of iPhone 4 when
it was launched. It had also said at the time of the launch of the iPad 3 that
the tablet PC generated too much heat.

The review group said that its tests had proved that
the iPhone 5 was among the best smartphones in the market, though its mapping
function fell far short in many respects.

"Despite the widespread criticism it has
received, Apple's new Maps app... is competent enough, even if it falls short
of what's available for free on many other phones," Consumer Reports
reviewer Mike Gikas wrote on the group's website on Friday.

"As Apple has recently apologized and promised to
fix these and other map glitches, we expect the Map app to improve in
time," he wrote.

Shares in Apple closed down more than 2 percent at
$652.59 on Friday, in a weak trading session.

Apple new iPhone does not have any big-bang or
outstanding features or functions that have been a hallmark of most iPhones
released in the past.

On the contrary, while it has sold in record numbers,
reports quickly started coming in with users getting disillusioned with its new
mapping software which was found to be of inferior standards often giving wrong
directions, while important landmarks were not shown in their rightful
locations.

Apple dumped Google Maps and replaced it with its own
mapping software.